Public policy and administration in Nigeria. Lessons from experience Peter H. Koeh Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado and London, 1990, 362 pp
| Date | 01 January 1991 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230110114 |
| Published date | 01 January 1991 |
| Author | B. C. Smith |
Book
Reviews
91
Their aim is to examine a range of theories about cutback processes embodied in both
popular assumptions and British and American social science as applied to public policy
and administration, and to test their plausibility by the systematic study of statistical data
in public records. This they accomplish in a study which is
a
model of its kind in showing
how theories can be made to generate testable hypotheses. The book makes a major contribu-
tion to
our
understanding of the workings of British government. But it has a much wider
appeal than this. The authors not only demonstrate how to derive testable propositions from
a
diverse and often conflicting array of theoretical positions and counter-positions. They
also provide lucid summaries
of
the theoretical controversies that have occupied people inter-
ested in different approaches to the study of governmental growth. This is done for explanations
that focus on different perceptions of party competition, the political business cycle, past
trends and predictions based on them, assumptions about the motivation
of
bureaucrats,
features
of
the bureaucratic process and differences between spending programmes.
Consequently, the book is of much broader interest than its empirical content which is
drawn from staffing and spending data of British central government departments. The analyti-
cal distinctions which are made in order to produce testable hypotheses make the book an
invaluable aid to research wherever one happened to be interested in the factors which deter-
mine changes in patterns of public expenditure and employment.
B.
C.
SMITH
University
of
Dundee
PUBLIC POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION IN NIGERIA. LESSONS FROM
EXPERIENCE
Peter
H.
Koeh
Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado and London,
1990,
362
pp.
As the possessor
of
the largest public bureaucracy in Sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria deserves
the detailed attention of specialists in public administration. Peter Koehn’s task was to illustrate
by reference to the Nigerian case the broad outline of contemporary public administration
in Africa. He examines the nature, growth and performance ofpublic administration in Nigeria,
administrative involvement in policy-making, agricultural policy, the management of Nigeria’s
debt, land allocation policies, local development planning, problems
of
local government
organization, and finally the character of African public services.
The book combines Nigerian data with reviews
of
the literature on other African states.
Both types
of
information are handled authoritatively to produce a unique and informative
combination
of
policy analysis and public administration. But an integration of the two is
not completed. The Nigerian case material, which is supposed to illustrate contemporary
African administration, often addresses quite different and sometimes less interesting issues
than those revealed by the literature reviews. Some propositions about African administration
and policy are put to the test of Nigerian data while others are left unconfirmed.
For
example,
at the end of the chapter on bureaucratic involvement in policy-making we are reminded
that African public administrators need to be analysed as an interest group, that they have
blocked the demands of the rural and urban poor, and that they have been dependent on
expatriate advisors and external analysts. But these are not ‘conclusions’ that can
be
drawn
from the preceding description of Nigerian administrative development. Similarly in the discus-
sion of structural and political aspects of administration in Nigeria the opportunity to test
statements about African structural adjustment programmes and the termination
of
govern-
ment subsidies in other African countries is missed. The chapter on agricultural policy starts
by referring to three crucial African considerations: the role
of
foreign donors and multi-
nationals; the interests of the bureaucratic segment of the ruling class; and the extent and
form of peasant empowerment. But the analysis which follows concentrates almost exclusively
on foreign agri-business and consultants in Nigeria. On the other hand, the analysis of Nigeria’s
experience of debt and structural adjustment, and its land allocation policies, shows them
to be representative of experience elsewhere in Africa. In the final chapter Nigerian data
is expertly used to test three hypotheses about bureaucratic behaviour.
So
one is left with
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